Figure skaters go to fists? Nah

Figure skating is a little different than boxing. You don’t have to worry about guys in sequins punching out each other. So you had to figure that Brian Joubert and Patrick Chan would do exactly what they did tonight during their press conference.

They shook hands and smiled.

If you read my previous blog, you know the story. Joubert lost his world title last year to Canada’s Jeffrey Buttle and complained that Buttle didn’t try a quad. Chan picked up for his countryman here and called Joubert “a sore loser.”

During the short program, sure enough, Joubert landed his quad and even though he faltered on the second half of his combination, he still went into first place going into tonight’s long. Chan did not try a quad and is in third.

Asked to comment on the controversy, Joubert and Chan merely pointed to each other as if they wanted the other to talk.

“I don’t care about it,” Joubert said. “He has to do his job on the ice. I have to do my job on the ice. We have to compete on the ice and not compete with journalists.

“A lot of Canadians are upset after what I said after the World Championships and I still think about a quad jump but I won’t talk about it. Patrick is a very dangerous skater for me so we will fight from here.”

Added Chan: “He said it perfectly. I didn’t see his skate so I can’t say anything. We both did our jobs today and that’s why we’re here. We’re not here to have a fight off the ice with the journalists or even beyond that.

“We’ve moved on from last year. Last year was a spur of the moment. He made a mistake. I don’t know if he made a mistake, but it doesn’t matter.”

At the end of the press conference, they shook hands. Then Evan Lysacek, the second-place American seemingly ignored next to them, asked them both, “What happened?”